ARTINDIA

Classical Indian music can be classified into two distinct categories, the North Indian or Hindustani & the South Indian or Carnatic music. The essential features & basis of both the styles are the same, in the sense that both are spiritualistic in nature. Foreign influences due to invasions by Persians, Arabs,.. are more evident in the Hindustani form. Invention of various musical instruments are attributed to the divine beings & they are depicted in pictographs & icons with their favourite instrument - Shiva with his damura, Saraswati with her veena, Krishna with his flute, Vishnu with his conch, Nandi with his miruthangam, Narada with his veena. The modern tendency to combine the northern & southern systems is significant of the unity which constitutes the bedrock of Indian music as a whole. Bharatha Muni to whom is attributed the creation of the Natya Sastra, explains the theory of music.
Jayadeva, one the early musicians, the author of Gita Govinda furnished information respecting the time (thala) & the raga associated with early songs. An annual festival to celebrate his memeory is held each year at Kendula, Bengal, his birthplace. Sarangadeva, another early writer in music lived at Daulatabad. His Sangita Ratnakera dates from the thirteenth century & in it he enumerated the 22 intervals of octave. Maratha love songs are full of incident, consequent upon the exploits of this warlike Hindu tribe.